Student Corner

Failure, as much as it hurts, is an important part of life. In fact, failure is necessary.

Failure depends on your attitude. You should be like, “I have failed more times than I’d like to admit. And I’m not talking about small failures; I’m talking about the kind of failures that rock my world, completely altering the landscape of my relationships, finances, and mental wellbeing. Failure is a common thing that will create a hurdle in the path of success. How are you gonna deal with it?

Will you quit? Or continue… 

Failure is life’s great teacher; it’s nature’s chisel that chips away at all the excess, stripping down egos as it molds and shapes us through divine intentions. Without failure, we’d be less capable of compassion, empathy, kindness, perseverance, belief, and great achievement; we would be less likely to reach for the moon and the stars. We won’t be able to desire too big. It’s through failure that we learn the greatest lessons that life could teach us.

When we think about failure, we think of things in a negative light. We say that failure is stopping us and that it causes emotional turmoil and upset, and inflicts agonizing pangs of guilt, regret, and remorse. It will lead us to stop and change the direction, but a belief that is growing inside you will be lending hands for you that will take you further. And the most successful people in life have failed the most times. If you try to go through life without failing at anything, then you’re not really living a life at all. Taking risks and falling down flat on our faces is part of life; it makes us into who we are.

When a baby is first learning to walk, he’s going to fall down many times. This, in fact, is a failure. But, ask any mother about their baby’s ability to walk and he will wholeheartedly declare that her baby will walk for sure, her baby will fall down many times but will start walking someday, this is the belief of a mother. Why is the mother so confident that her daughter will walk? Of course, we all know the answer to that. We know that falling down and failing while learning to walk is just a part of life. So, why do we hesitate to take failure at other things in the same manner?

The problem is society tends to celebrate the successes rather than highlighting the epic journeys towards success that are filled with trials, tribulations, upsets, setbacks, and failures. It’s not as glamorous to talk about those things.

Thomas Alva Edison is the epitome of failure.

Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” Today, do I really need to introduce this eminent leader? Do I really need to mention what he brought for us? No, not at all…

As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When he was asked about failing a thousand times what his reply to this tells a lot about his dedication, perseverance, and belief.

He smiled and said, “the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

It’s a matter of our thought process. How serious are we about our dreams?

Would failures be able to stop achieving your dreams? If you’re failing, don’t quit, learn something out of it and improve the mistakes that you would have made in the last attempt, you will succeed for sure.

“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”

-Shraddha Pandey(ISBR-MBA Student)